By Leif Nesheim - The Daily World As negotiations for the acquisition of the mothballed Weyerhaeuser pulp mill drag into
their fourth month, opponents continue to question the wisdom of the Grays Harbor PUD’s proposed partnership with Evergreen
Pulp Cosmopolis.

PUD officials say the fears are groundless. Evergreen hopes to buy the mill from Weyerhaeuser, while the PUD would acquire
the mill’s electricity generation assets in a simultaneous deal.

One critic, Ray Brown of Westport, this week grilled the PUD commissioners on the identity of its proposed partner. Brown
is challenging Commissioner Jim Eddy’s bid for re-election.

“If your partner is a ‘shell’ corporation and they go broke, who picks up the site remediation tab?”
Brown asked.

Tiny culprit wages war on oystersNew
filter best hope for stopping bacteria that kill larvae

Cookson BeecherCapital Press

A tiny microbe is threatening the future of the Pacific Coast's vibrant oyster industry.

The bacterium, Vibrio tubiashii, is killing billions of young oyster larvae - the "seeds" that grow into the popular West
Coast oysters so highly prized by domestic and overseas customers.

The problem is widespread. The tiny bacteria are killing oyster and geoduck larvae in every commercial shellfish hatchery
on the West Coast, leaving shellfish growers in Washington, Oregon and California scrambling to find larvae stock for the
2008 growing season.

Late last summer, the situation got so bad that Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on Netarts Bay in Oregon - one of the
largest hatcheries on the West Coast -was forced to shut down.

The hatchery is currently open, but only partially.

Co-owner Mark Wiegardt said the hatchery usually produces many billions of oyster larvae each year. But it couldn't produce
any at all when the bacteria exploded in numbers at the hatchery in August.

"It was like living in a nightmare," Wiegardt said in a June 9 interview with Capital Press.

At Taylor Shellfish Farm's hatchery on Dabob Bay on the Hood Canal in Washington, production is only 10 to 20 percent of
normal.